


hella best friends forever

by dryadfiona



Series: tell me when you need me [1]
Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Canonical Character Death, Childhood Friends, F/F, Friends to Lovers, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-27
Updated: 2020-01-27
Packaged: 2021-02-27 03:40:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22440478
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dryadfiona/pseuds/dryadfiona
Summary: When Chloe and Max are nine years old, Rachel Amber moves into Arcadia Bay. They're fast friends.
Relationships: Maxine "Max" Caulfield/Chloe Price, Rachel Amber/Chloe Price, Rachel Amber/Maxine "Max" Caulfield, Rachel Amber/Maxine "Max" Caulfield/Chloe Price
Series: tell me when you need me [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1616788
Comments: 17
Kudos: 113





	hella best friends forever

"I have a new neighbor," Chloe says as soon as Max opens the door.

"Who is she?" Max asks, running back to her room, Chloe following.

"Her name's Rachel," Chloe says. "She said she's going to our school starting next week and that she likes space and her mom's gonna let her dye part of her hair."

"That's so cool," Max says enthusiastically. "Do you think she'll hang out with us?"

"Uh, duh," Chloe says. "We're neighbors, we're basically already friends. That's how best friends are made."

"We're not neighbors and _we're_ best friends," Max says, flopping back onto her bed as soon as she's in her room.

"Yeah, but that's because we're so awesome," Chloe says wisely. Max has no reason not to doubt her.

* * *

As it turns out, Rachel is also _so_ awesome. Max tells her so right when they first meet, and worries that Rachel will realize how un-cool Max is in comparison, but Rachel just beams at her and says she likes her camera.

"Dad, can we have a sleepover?" Chloe asks, dragging Max and Rachel in behind her.

"I thought Max was already staying the night?" William asks, before turning to see _another_ kid standing behind his daughter. "Oh. You're Rachel, right?"

"Yes, sir," Rachel says, always oddly formal around adults. Max has the weird idea that asking her about it would be bad, so she hasn't.

"No need for that here," William says, and Rachel blinks up at him, surprised. "You can call me William."

"William," she says. "My mom said it's okay if I spend the night as long as we stay here and it's okay with you."

"Fine with me, but I should check with the missus," he says. "Let me call her right now."

They wait until he gives them a nod, phone to his ear, before they start cheering. He shushes them, but the smile on his face shows he isn't too upset with them. Chloe says, "C'mon, let me show you my room!"

Rachel runs up the stairs, and Max follows just a step behind. 

"Wow!" Rachel says, looking around Chloe's room with wide eyes.

"Do you like it?" Chloe asks, almost shy.

"Of course she does!" Max says, always defensive of Chloe. "This room is like, the coolest."

"It is!" Rachel says. "I like all your posters. What's that one of?"

She points to a giant poster of Max and Chloe's favorite show.

"You haven't seen--"

* * *

They watch the show until Joyce calls them down for dinner, and even then, scarf their food down so they can run back to the TV and finish it. When William tells them to go to bed, they wait until they can hear his telltale snoring before sneaking back downstairs. The volume's so low that they all have to huddle around the TV to hear it, and Max's shoulder is pressed right up against Rachel's.

"What kind of--" she starts to ask Max on their way back upstairs after Chloe's twenty-millionth yawn showed them that they really were done tonight. (Rachel says she counted twenty million. Max thinks Rachel's funny.)

"Shh," Chloe shushes them both, and Rachel and Max giggle.

"I've never stayed up like that before," Rachel says once they get into Chloe's room. "Only on New Year's with my parents!"

"Really?" Chloe asks. "What did you do with your old friends?"

Rachel shrugs. "You guys are my first friends."

"What!" Chloe says, loud enough that Max and Rachel shush her now. "But you're so cool!"

"My last school was boring," Rachel says. "It was all--snooty." She tilts her nose up and does a bad impression of the show's villain, and Max laughs so hard that Chloe puts a pillow over her mouth to shut her up.

They're having so much fun, they hardly notice William's snoring has stopped until he's knocking at Chloe's door. Max and Chloe, used to this, rush to get under the blankets, helping Rachel with them.

"Girls?"

"If we stay quiet, he'll think we've gone to sleep," Max whispers to Rachel, who looks a little nervous. 

"Okay," she whispers, holding tight onto Max's hand.

"If anyone _was_ staying up," William says. "I'd remind them that we do breakfast early here at the Price house. And that if those people wanted another reason to get some sleep, there may be a surprise visit to the boardwalk tomorrow."

Chloe's face lights up, even as William eventually heads back to bed and starts sleeping/snoring again.

"The boardwalk?"

"It's _so_ fun," Chloe says. "We should sleep, though, so we can go! Good night."

Chloe's out like a light not long after, and Rachel's close behind. Max always took awhile to fall asleep, so she just looks at the glow-in-the-dark stars on Chloe's ceiling, counting them over and over.

"Max?"

"Yeah, Rachel?" Max whispers.

"Thanks for being my friend."

Max smiles at her, but she has her eyes closed, already mostly asleep.

* * *

They stay friends for years and years. Their duo becomes a trio without any conscious decision from any of them, but it's great, and they love it.

"I deserve this extra piece of bacon, Chloe," Rachel says confidently.

"Give me one reason!" Chloe says, disbelieving.

"Hm," Rachel says, tilting her head to the side to think. "I helped with breakfast."

"So did I!" Chloe says. "It's my house."

"I'm the _guest_ ," Rachel says.

"So's Max. C'mon, Max, Rachel's being a brat."

Max is standing, looking outside. Rachel can't see her reflection in the glass.

"Max, you're acting so fucking weird," Chloe says. Rachel privately agrees.

Max turns to them, and says, "I think I fucked everything up." She sounds older than she normally does, Rachel thinks, and it makes her stomach twist uncomfortably.

"What are you talking about?" Chloe asks, immediately concerned. 

"I just--I couldn't let anything happen to either of you," Max says, looking between the two of them with wide, wet eyes. Rachel runs up to her and hugs her, because that's what Max does when she's crying about her parents, and it always helps. Max's returning hug crushes the air out of her lungs.

"We're gonna be best friends forever," Chloe says confidently, joining the hug. "You know that!"

"Yeah," Max says. "Yeah."

They stay like that for a second, before Max steps back. "Why are we hugging?"

"You were sad?" Rachel asks, confused.

"I was?"

Max sounds like she normally does, but it doesn't reassure Rachel that everything's fine. Instead, the hairs on the back of her neck stand up.

"Max, what's going on?" Chloe glances at Rachel, and Rachel's relieved that someone else is finding this weird, too.

"I don't know," Max says, honestly.

The three of them forget about it for a bit, playing pirate captain and first mate and mermaid (Rachel would never wear an eyepatch) until Joyce comes home.

"Hey, Mom!" Chloe says, waving from one of the swings. Joyce runs up and hugs her, and it's only then that the three of them realize she's crying. "Mom, what's wrong?"

* * *

"What do you mean you're _leaving_?" Rachel asks. "The funeral is basically _now_."

"My dad got a new job in Seattle," Max says, and Rachel loves her, but fuck, is she _pissed_. "I--they said we're leaving now, and I asked if I could stay, but they said no, and--"

"How long have you known?" Rachel asks accusingly.

"I thought I was going to the funeral," Max says, which isn't an answer.

"How long have you known that you're _moving_?"

"...a few weeks," Max admits. "Since before--"

"You knew and you didn't say anything?" Rachel shakes her head. "What the _fuck_ , Max?"

"I couldn't think of how to bring it up!"

"Doesn't matter," Rachel says. "Does Chloe know?"

"Yeah," Max says. "I told her yesterday, when I was, um, helping--"

"Did you tell her you were missing the funeral?"

"It's not my fault, I didn't _know_ ," Max says. "You're so _mad_ \--"

"I am!" Rachel yells, and Max takes a half-step back. Rachel would feel bad in any other situation. "Forget it, you're coming with us."

"What?" 

"We're all going to the funeral, and if your parents have an issue with it, I'll sic my mom on 'em." Rachel drags Max down the stairs to the car, where her parents are waiting. 

"Rachel, I'm sorry," Max says.

"So am I," Rachel says, but she doesn't look at her when she says it.

* * *

"Max _still_ not texting you back?" Rachel asks, breathing out a long line of smoke.

"She's been bad about texting us back since she left," Chloe reminds Rachel, trying to ignore the way the low light against Rachel's profile makes her stomach twist. "You know that. Or did three years of Max text conversations not clue you in?"

"You just gotta keep annoying her until she responds," Rachel says confidently. "Gimme your phone."

"What? No."

Rachel's been stronger than Chloe since they first met, since Chloe liked anime and science and Rachel liked--well, everything, including rock climbing and running and skateboarding. Chloe can put up more of a fight when Rachel tries to take her things than she could when they were nine, but Rachel usually wins.

"Ha!" Rachel says, only a little out of breath, sitting half in Chloe's lap to pin her down. Chloe feels like she's red from head to toe. "I'm gonna...hit...dial." Rachel looks down at her, seemingly noticing their position for the first time.

"Sure," Chloe says, eloquently.

Rachel doesn't hit dial. She actually puts the phone down.

"What are you--"

Rachel's kiss is completely unexpected, and Chloe doesn't know how to respond for a second. In the time that it takes her brain to catch up to what's going on, Rachel's pulled back and is apologizing profusely, climbing off the bed completely and turning to leave.

"Rachel, wait--"

Chloe's door slams right in front of her, and David yells at them to keep it down. Chloe, as usual, ignores him, opening her door and running down the stairs after Rachel.

"Rachel!"

"I'm sorry," Rachel says, as she's been saying for the past minute. Chloe's not wearing shoes, and she'd really prefer not to be standing in the snow outside in just socks, but Rachel isn't walking away anymore, so.

"You don't have to apologize," Chloe reassures her.

"I thought--well, it doesn't matter what I--"

"I like you!" Chloe interrupts her.

"You...do?" Rachel seems genuinely surprised, as if their entire class isn't in love with her, wondering who the punk with a streak of blue hair is, following after the most popular girl in school like a lovestruck puppy.

"Of course I do," Chloe says. "I thought you knew and you were just...ignoring it."

"Oh," Rachel says, which is far from what Chloe wanted to hear. 

"Um, that's all I wanted to say," Chloe says, stepping back inside. Rachel takes a step after her, and kisses her as soon as they're inside.

* * *

"You two are dating?" Max asks over the phone, and Chloe can't tell how she feels about it.

"I think so," Chloe says, looking at the photos from the photobooth they'd taken earlier that day. Rachel surprised her with a kiss in the last one, and Chloe would be embarrassed by the total surprise on her face in any other situation. "We haven't talked about it, but--"

"You should," Max says, and Chloe still can't tell how she feels. "I--I know I've been a bad friend to you recently," and Chloe snorts because _that's_ an understatement, "but you two are still my best friends, and you deserve to be happy."

"Thanks, Max," Chloe says, genuinely touched. "Any luck on finding time to visit?"

"No, but I figured something...else out, maybe," Max says. "I don't wanna say until it works out, though."

"What are you planning, Max?" Chloe asks.

"Gotta go, bye," Max says, and hangs up. Chloe frowns at her phone, not sure why she's so upset, because it _feels_ like every little rejection felt when she had this crush on Max as a kid, but she isn't _into_ Max anymore. She likes Rachel.

Rachel, who is currently throwing pebbles into her open window.

"You know," Chloe says, leaning out of her room. "If the window's open, you can just yell."

"Where's the romance in that?" Rachel says, beaming up at her. "I have _news_."

"Is it that you got into Blackwell? Because that's not news, we knew that was gonna happen."

"You're ruining my fun. Can I come up? David's glaring at me for yelling in front of his garage."

"Gimme a sec," Chloe says, running downstairs to open the door. Rachel greets her with a quick kiss, and Chloe has to fight the urge to hide her face in her beanie. "So what's your news?"

"It was actually that I got into Blackwell," Rachel says, and Chloe's about to gloat about how well she knows her until Rachel says. " _And_ I know someone else who got in."

"Ugh, not Prescott," Chloe says.

"Why would that be news?" Rachel asks, leading Chloe upstairs like she owns the place. "No, guess again."

"Uh, Stella?"

"Probably, but not who I'm talking about. C'mon, Chloe."

"Max?" she says, just so Rachel will stop making her play this game and just tell her.

"Yes! Oh my God, how'd you guess?"

"Wait, Max is coming to Blackwell?" Chloe asks. "She told me she figured something out other than visiting but it wasn't ready yet or something!"

"To be fair, they may not have told her," Rachel says.

"But they told you?"

"Told...or was found out because a certain beautiful someone snuck through their files," Rachel admits, smiling up at her. Chloe's half-in-love.

"You're a nightmare," Chloe says fondly.

"You love me," Rachel says, averting her gaze as if it's a little hard to say.

"I, uh--"

"Anyway, there's this party--"

* * *

Max comes to Blackwell and Rachel immediately warms back up to her. Sure, she'd been a bad friend when she left, but Rachel had _missed_ Max, and Max had clearly missed Chloe and Rachel, if the way she fits right back into their lives is any indication.

Maybe that's just fate, or so she likes to think.

The problem is, is that Rachel's crush on Max from when she was fucking _nine_ isn't gone yet. She talked to Chloe about it, because she trusts Chloe in the way she doesn't trust anyone, in the way you can only trust your first friend ever when they never left. Chloe had admitted she felt the same, and after that, they both felt a little weird, off-kilter.

Rachel teased Chloe about Max one night, lips brushing against Chloe's ear, and Chloe had full-body shuddered.

"Maxine," Rachel says, to annoy her.

"You _know_ I hate that," Max says. "What?"

"You know how I'm your _favorite_?"

"Chloe's my favorite," Max says, deadpan, and Chloe smirks at Rachel. Rachel glares at her. 

"Whatever. Do me a favor?"

"What favor?"

"I...okay, you know how I've been missing photography class?"

"Yeah," Max says, and her little worried frown shouldn't be cute, and _yet_. "What's going on? You used to love photography."

"Teacher gives me the creeps," she admits, and Chloe and Max exchange a glance that Rachel thinks they probably think is subtle. "I've been just pretending I'm sleeping through my nap alarms."

"For two weeks?"

"A girl's gotta nap," she says cheerfully, trying to change the weird weight of this conversation, unfortunately failing. "Anyway, can I copy your homework?"

"Sure," Max says, because Chloe and Rachel are bad influences. "You should probably talk to Wells about the teacher thing."

"I thought you liked him?" Rachel asks.

"I don't know," Max says, and Rachel's not one to go out of her way to protect herself, but if _Max_ is uncomfortable, well. "The way he talks about models is--well, he's an artist, maybe I'm just reading too much into it."

"Hm," Chloe says.

* * *

When Kate, Max's best friend who isn't Rachel or Chloe, admits that Jefferson won't listen to her and she's getting the creeps, the four of them think they maybe actually have something to talk to the principal about. Well, the three of them. Chloe thinks talking to the principal's a bad idea, but she agrees to go with them for support; what kind of (girl)friend would she be if she didn't?

David's there, too, which is confusing, as is the way he and the principal keep whispering to each other whenever Kate or Rachel say anything.

"Thank you for bringing this to our attention," Wells says. "Blackwell will look into it."

From Chloe's snort and Kate's frown, it's clearly not too convincing. But still, it's more than there used to be, so they leave in okay spirits.

"Chloe," Max says, whispering close enough to her ear that Chloe shivers. "Can I talk to you and Rachel? Alone?"

"Sure," Chloe says, trying not to get her hopes up, because it's definitely gonna be something about the teacher, and she should be a good, supportive friend right now. "Rach," (Max stiffens a bit at the nickname), "Wanna break into the pool?"

"You three are asking for trouble," Kate says with a little laugh. "I'll see you later, Max."

"See ya, Kate," Max says, smiling after her in a way that makes Chloe's heart fall to somewhere near her knees. "Let's go, guys."

Rachel and Chloe follow Max, holding hands, because she's their best friend just like they're hers. "Girls or boys, Max?" Chloe says, teasing.

"Girls, of course," Max says.

"Ooh," Rachel says, lifting an eyebrow. Max blushes, which is interesting. She walks past Rachel without saying anything, which is more expected.

"What do you think she wants to talk to us about?" Chloe asks Rachel under her breath.

"No idea," Rachel says. "Here for you, though."

They get to the pool and Max is already swimming in her underwear. Rachel strips down without an ounce of shame, and Chloe, feeling weird about doing this in front of Max, looks away from both of them before tanking her tank and jeans off.

Rachel dives in gracefully, and Chloe cannonballs. Max makes a noise of protest at the splash Chloe's jump makes, and Rachel rates it "7/10". 

"So what'd you wanna talk to us about?" Rachel asks, swimming with great form as if she hadn't dropped out of the swim team less than two weeks after joining it. 

"I know I've been...awkward, around you guys lately," Max starts.

"Not any more than usual," Chloe says. 

"Yeah, I haven't noticed," Rachel says.

"Oh," Max says. "Well, I, uh...have. Or I thought I was."

"That's fine, Max! It's been awhile since we've seen each other."

"Well, that's not it, though," Max says. Rachel and Chloe share a look, hopeful and worried all at once. "I...look, when I was a kid, I kind of had a massive crush on both of you."

"Oh," Chloe and Rachel say in unison.

"And...it kind of didn't go away," Max admits. "And I know you two are happy together, and I don't wanna interfere, I just...wanted to clear the air. If you want some space, I--"

"Hey, Max?" Rachel says.

"Yeah?"

"Can I kiss you?"

"Wh--"

"I was Max's friend first, I should get to kiss her first," Chloe protests.

"Way to be romantic," Rachel says.

"I don't understand what's happening," Max says, looking at both of them like they're crazy.

"We _also_ like you," Rachel says. "Both of us. We were trying to figure out how you felt before saying anything."

Max doesn't say anything.

"You okay?" Chloe asks, resting against the side of the pool.

"Yeah," Max says with a smile brighter than anything. "I'm just...processing. Why didn't you tell me?"

"Why didn't you tell us?" Rachel asks.

"I'm shy!" Max says, blushing. "You _both_ know that--"

Rachel laughs, kisses Max halfway through her ramble, and Max kisses back so enthusiastically they almost need Chloe to drag them out of the water. Then Chloe kisses Max, and then Rachel again for good measure.

"We should head back to my dorm," Rachel says, forehead against Max's. Chloe would be jealous if it weren't for the fact that she doesn't have to choose, if they didn't both choose her.

"My bed's bigger than both of yours," Chloe says.

"I don't really feel like waiting for that drive to be over," Max says.

" _We_ don't have to," Rachel teases, and Chloe protests, saying something about how she tries to keep her car, and Rachel laughs, and Max is too bashful to say much of anything but her hand is in Chloe's as Rachel leads them out.


End file.
